The Beautiful Produce of Rural Australia Comes To The Beach House

I know this a coastal blog about lifestyle and design on the Northern Beaches of Sydney Australia, but Sydney has just gone through it's wettest July since 1959.....so the thought of getting out amongst it on the coast just didn't wash with me this week past.  So on the back of your lovely responses to my story about our trip to the country last week,  I wanted to tell you what we did with all the produce we bought there.

But I need to back ground you first........Mr Beach House has now finished installing our new driveway and roof.....which I can tell you came in real handy in last week's down pour.  Mr Beach House seems to be lucky like that.  We have more rain in one week than we've had since 1959 and we just happened to replace our leaky roof last month.  Yeah!!!!  And the driveway replacement could have been scheduled for that rainy week but no, it was scheduled to start two weeks before, which it did and to say it was completed the day before the down pour began, is no under statement.  But as usual I digress,  lets just say that Mr BH has been hanging out to show off his drive way and new roof to anyone who is interested.  And for some reason, that is completely beyond me, lots of men are!!!!!  I mean it all looks better yes, but to me it looks like it has always been there so I don't see the big deal really.

Anyway, he has been suggesting we invite our good mates Darrin and Suzi over for some weeks now to see the new roof.  I love seeing these guys as well, but this is usually how the preparation for any entertaining we do at the Beach House goes.  Whilst I spend the whole day preparing the food, cleaning the house and looking after the Beach House Brats, he goes sailing. Now that's not a great deal is it?  He bids me adieu with a peck on the cheek and with promises of his early return in time to help.  Yeah right!!.....The reality is that he waltzes in five minutes before the guests are due and messes up the bathroom, I have spent loads of time, cleaning to within an inch of it's life.  The one job I can always rely on him to do though, is to sweep the deck....even if it is as the guests are walking through the gate.

So last Saturday it was situation normal.......My baby gal and I made some bread....so that was simple and the idea was, we were going to load this up with produce from River Flats Estate in Broke.

As for Mr Beach House,  at least I was prepared for what was coming I thought, so I didn't touch the bathroom and asked him to clean it as he walked through the door, but he got me again. He had showered at the yacht club, so he never went near it and I ended up giving it a quick swizzle before our guests arrived. He's so naughty!!!!

 As for River Flats Estate, they have a wonderful olive grove and all the produce is made locally so food miles are not an issue here.  And it was very good.  We had dukkah, tapenade and olives marinated in thyme.  Yummo.

The olive oil was just a lemon infused one I had in the pantry.  It's one of my secret salad ingredients which you can read about here if you like.  We also had some brie, but by the time I took this photo that was all gone.

Our friends came bearing gifts

Some lovely shell art which was incredibly generous.  This will be hanging on the deck by Spring, as I need to do some serious styling out there before the weather warms up.

The wine was superb.  I mentioned Krinklewood Vineyard in a post here and I have to say the wines we picked were fabulous.  The Krinklewood late pick Semillon is labelled as a desert wine, but we had it as an aperitif and it was delightful.  It was truly sun kissed and as I swallowed, I could just about taste every ray.....boy it was good.   I am not really a white drinker but the Verdelho was also superb I am reliably informed.  Our friends had another engagement so we didn't open the Champagne......but I can say it wont last long.

As for the vineyard at Krinklewood, if you are ever in the Hunter you have to go.  This one is in a class of its own.  The buildings have to be seen to be believed.  The owners are actually builders and nothing has been spared to give this place a beautiful rural, colonial and French inspired feel!!!!  I never miss a chance to go there and am always blown away when I do.  There are no crowds and you can drink your wine in the court yard with a cheese platter available for purchase at the cellar door. 

I just adore walking around this place drinking it all in.

The homestead is wonderful and you can see a better shot of it here

Even the peacocks have great taste. They were not purchased by the owners, but just decided to nest on the property. The organic and bio dynamic nature of the farming practises here, may have had something to do with their arrival.

So our week started out well, drinkies with good mates who spilled the beans about their latest trip to Italy, all washed down with some brilliant wine and a few laughs.  I also hope you  have a fabulous start to the week dear reader.  The Beach House has been very sleepy for the last three weeks and I can gladly say that Cadel Evans winning the Tour de France, means we can all get some sleep around here.  I will miss the passing French scenery though.  I do believe, the Tour de France beaming into our living room each night, from my beloved France is the best thing about July in Sydney.

Today I am linked up with

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

http://kirstygirl7.blogspot.com/

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com

http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

http://www.iheartnaptime.net/

http://www.bystephanielynn.com